this has been going on for quite some time now. let's not lay the blame on one particular person. we all have a response ability to recognize what is going on and to use our influence to collect some of these things. one of the things that my wife and i have done is -- i go into schools and we see all these trophies. all state basketball, wrestling. the quarterback is the big man on campus. what about the academic superstar? what do they get? a national honor society pin. nobody really cares about them. i was aware of a survey that was done in 22 countries looking at the ability of eighth grade equivalent to solve math and science problems. we came in 21 out of 22. i was devastated. i said, we have got to do

something about this. we cannot wait for the government to do something about this. we as the private sector has to do something -- have to do something. we started giving out scholarships to children from all backgrounds who achieved at the highest possible levels academically and also to illustrate this humanitarian qualities, that they cared about other people. -- also demonstrated humanitarian qualities. they care about other people. we started 17 years ago just in the state of maryland. now we have over 5000 scholars in all 50 states. [cheers and applause] these are incredibly bright young people. in fact, just yesterday i found out that one of our scholars was accepted into the residency at

johns hopkins. fantastic. [applause] the other component of the program is we put in reading. we target title one schools, where a lot of kids come from homes with no books and they go to schools with no libraries. those are the ones who dropped out of school. we have a 30% high school dropout rate. we cannot afford that. we create these rumors that nokia could pass up. they get points for the number of books they read -- rooms that no kid could pass up. it translates into a much better academic performance. we cannot afford to throw any of those young people away. for every one of those young people we keep from going down that path of self destruction, that is one less person you have to protect yourself and your family from. one less person in the welfare

system. one more taxpaying productive member of society that may discover a new energy source. we need all of them. [cheers and applause] humanitarian part of the program is every bit as important as the academic part. we are a humanitarian mission. historically, we have been. many people do not know this, but socialism started as a reaction to america. people in europe with us and said, look at those americans. you have people like ford and kellogg and vendor build and rockefeller. they have so much money. and rockefeller. you need an overarching system that receives the funds and ridges to visit in an equitable way.

anredistributes it in equitable way. what did they not realize? instead of the land barons of europe hoardng money and passing it down from -- hoarding and passing it down from generation to generation, they built the infrastructure of this nation. they built factories and textile mills. they built the mechanism that created the most powerful and dynamic middle-class the world has ever seen. they built universities and museums and charitable organizations because that has been the nature of america. we have always been generous. nobody is starving on the streets. we have always taken care of them. we have churches that are a much better mechanism for taking care of the poor.

this is one of the reasons that we give tax deductions to churches. because they do that. why is the government trying to duplicate what they are supposed to be doing. we need to think smartly about the ways we use our resources and use our money. in 2009, 40 of the wealthiest families in america pledged to give away health of their wealth to charity. go someplace else in the world and ask for the of the wealthiest families to give away their wealth. they will look at you like you have six heads. this is the phenomena of america. it is not the government's responsibility. it is our responsibility as citizens. [cheers and applause] as we are talking about fairness, let's talk about taxes. me --eople criticize

criticized me at the prayer breakfast for bringing up god and the bible. it is a prayer breakfast, right? i do not understand that. if got things proportionality is clear come who are we to say it is unfair? the minute you begin to deviate away from proportionality, you begin to inject your own philosophy. that is always going to leave you in one direction or another. i think that is why god has a program like that. you make $10, you put in one. what could be more fair than that? i will tell you what is not fair. what is not fair is when you

exempt some people and you say, you do not have to pay anything. we will take care of you. very "newsmakers -- what you are saying is i will take care of you. the superior elite group needs to be superior an elite. they cannot be superior and elite unless you have a lot of people around their groveling around. you keep them down there by feeding them. ife other ulterior motive is, everybody doesn't have six skin

in the game, you have to be responsible. if you come talk about raising taxes, you are raising taxes on everybody and you better have a week -- a good reason. it really matters about everybody. that is what is fair. briefly, i do not have time to , 1/6to it, but health care of our economy. if the government can control that, they can control just about everything. we need to understand what is going on. there are much more economic models that can be used to give as good health care than what we have now. we were asleep at the wheel to let it happen. we have to find a way to make it

work. if we have to work within the frameworks of the affordable health care act, fine. if we can find a way to defund its -- it, fine. 80% of the encounters between a patient and a health-care provider could easily be handled by a health savings accounts. with ofhe encounters the need to insinuates a third party or a bureaucracy that sucks out 1/3 of the money. we can use rich insurance and catastrophic insurance. toe of them, i do not want call them more runs, but they are similar to that. , but they are similar to that. read the book.

obviously, i am thinking about those things. ofis almost laughable some the things i hear people say to criticize. they say, he is a neurosurgeon, he could not know anything about is not brain surgery. [cheers and applause] i can tell you this much. even as a lowly brain surgeon, if you have the highest corporate tax rates in the world, of course corporations are going to have money elsewhere. corporations are not in business to be social welfare organizations. they are there to make money. a wise government knows how to

use that to their advantage. there is a ton of money outside this country and inside this country just waiting to be unleased to make all kinds of jobs and opportunities if we treat them as our friends and not as our enemy. [cheers and applause] , we have to resist this war on god. [applause] people do not want to talk wantgod and tell you -- the about god and don't you ever mention jesus christ. and this is a place where we have freedom of religion and freedom of speech. it is absolutely absurd. let's let everybody believe what they want to believe. that means, pc police, don't

come down on the people believe in god and believe in jesus. if they want to put something out about their beliefs, they have every right to do that. [applause] that weto understand are not each other's enemies in this country. his is only the political class that derives its power by creating friction. that only the media derives its importance by creating friction by using every little thing to create this chasm between people. this is not who we are. we have much more in common with each other. we have to be smart enough to understand that. we have to live by godly principles of loving your fellow

best to yourg your utmost so that you become of value, have values and principles that guide your life. if we do that, not only will we remain a pinnacle nation, but we will have one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] >> all right. all right. how do you think it went? to you think it went ok income

of [laughter] it went fantastic. i will play the role of dick cavet and ask you some questions. did you announced your leaving madison? will be6 days i retiring. i will be 62 years old in september. i strongly believe there is the reason pilots are asked to retire >> he has the shakes. >> i much rather quit while i am at the top of my game. there are so many more things that can be done. [cheers and applause] .> that is a big announcement i have an announcement to make.

i am going to be getting into brain surgery. i am going into medicine. how tough could it be? obviously, people are asking a question, are you leaving medicine so that you can do other things, maybe in the political sphere? i am very dedicated to education of the next generation. to see how everybody you can get involved. once we get that taken care of, who knows? >> i was going to say, this is a sophisticated political audience, and they can tell you have entered politics because you're not answering that question straight. [laughter] caller: --

a if you're looking for white guy on the ticket, i am your man. [laughter] , i am onlyjust say interested in the brain. >> my brain is pretty pink. we will talk backstage. what do you see happening? i spoke about religious freedom. i really do believe we are having a conversation in america right now -- some of us are having a conversation about the idea we are headed to a fiscal cliff. if we don't reverse engines, if we don't see the free market and enable the market to do what it is meant to do, we will lose our freedom. i really do believe that religious freedom is that no one is talking about. he shows the link, this golden

triangle, which the founders knew. you talk about education. at least two generations, i went to school in the 1970's. no one taught us about the founders idea of liberty. how can you have a generation of americans really be a america if we don't know -- to be an american, it is not your blood type or ethnic group. it is an idea. most citizens don't know what it is they have and what they are supposed to protect and promulgate. how can we be america? >> that is the reason i wrote america, the beautiful. >> did you write a book? >> i wrote a book. >> how to i get this wonderful product? >> then the left says, you are only there to promote your book. >> all these doctors. [laughter] >> i appreciate people have

bought it. the last week, it was number one on the new york times bestseller. [cheers and applause] >> speaking as an author, i deeply resent you. [laughter] ,> the fact of the matter is because teeple don't know -- people don't know who we are, they don't recognize those forces which are changing. >> that is the point. that was effectively my point. i thought you were listening. [laughter] >> i appreciate the fact you negated the need for me to say several things. >> you still went over time. we are about out of time. in the few minutes we have left, let me say how wonderful it was to hear it your speech rude i was in the room at the national prayer breakfast. -- what i found interesting,

when you said what you said, it did not come across in the spirit in which you said it as though you were trying to humiliate anybody. on the contrary, i thought you spoke with grace and civility. [cheers and applause] as christians, we are commanded to love our enemies. theme commanded to treat with grace because we know if it weren't for the grace of god, we will be on the other side of these issues. [laughter] oh, you don't think so? we will talk later. the fact you did not do that was very important. i was dismayed that most of the people were doing the end zone dance at what she said which colored remarks that i thought was not appropriate.

you spokein which was as important as what you said. i want to say to my fellow conservatives, that is very important. for those of us who claim to be believers, we need to express the truth with civility and love. otherwise, it is not the truth anymore. i want to commend you for doing that. we are way out of time. god bless you. [cheers and applause] thank you. ♪ ♪ [applause] >> that was a great discussion. coming up, and economic powerhouse panel. more insight than you can get at any college or university. starting off, we have john allison from cato institute.

.e was the chairman the harvard business review said he was the top ceo of the last decade. we have arthur brooks. he always writes very well about the morality of capitalism. he has written several books. feulner. he has authored eight books. [applause] also, a person who is wrote a fabulous book about the history of the civil war. i am looking forward to this panel. make you stick around for it. it will be a great time for economic insight. i am looking forward to it.

>> good morning. i have to appreciate the irony of cpac, titling the panel the smartest guys in the room. with all respect, we just had to follow a neurosurgeon. [laughter] that economics is not neuroscience, given how the united states congress understands economics or not does not bode well for their economic iq. years ago, i was at my college roommates wedding. i was talking with the groom's father who had not seen in several years. he was not familiar with the nonprofit group where i worked. have that elevator speech but described the work of my organization, so i reverted to my d.c. speak. i said, it is a think thank.

i expected his eyes to open with profound clarity and his head to non-with understanding. every body knows what a think tank is. after a two-second pause, he reared his head back and laughed. for the next 40 hours, even while we stood at the front of the church during the ceremony, he would glance at me, shake shake his head, mumble and laugh and laugh. this is the first realization in my career that i would never be understood by those outside the beltway. foruld be doomed conversations repeated with family members saying, so, what do you do again? we represent think tanks that we believe are part of the to promotingting principles by our founding fathers. we are not the only for, and that is a very good thing.

we represent the necessary elements of today's political reality. there are proximally 500 think tanks in washington dc alone. thousands more are spread around america and around the globe. they are a very good mission with groups studying the big picture. to grass roots thinkers. i suspect a phrase that we have other -- added is that ideas matter and ideas have consequences. we care deeply about the direction of this country or perhaps the lack thereof. we remind elected officials we are a country founded on principles of free enterprise and limited public institutions. there rose -- wool is to a spouse those principles.

think tanks devoted to understanding and promoting economic and individual freedom should not be a laughing matter. instead, they have enabled the movement to grow throughout the decade. as many of you stand in the trenches of primaries and general elections, so have have each of our institutions flocked with ideas based at risk -- advocacy groups. there are many who oppose us. early on, it was conservatives and libertarians who were most creative in adding muscle to creative opportunity and countering the growing number of policies centers which benefited from the status quo. the heritage foundation and cato institute grew out of that great. of entrepreneurship. whichring the efforts have been pushing back against many attempts to sign a free enterprise. the left recognizes the threat

and invested heavily in establishing its own ideas. as we know, they have had and still have much to lose if we get a more limited government, if that comes to pass. we have to ask ourselves, is it enough? is there hope? it is commonplace that many in our movement blame the candidates or the media instead of coming to terms with what may be a sobering lesson of 2012. in the midst of one of the worst economic periods -- barack obama argued that wasn't a, d.c. is a better steward of american life and liberty that americans themselves and that argument revealed. -- prevailed. that ideas have devastating consequences. i hope we can address the importance of ideas within the

halls of political power. also, how we can communicate these ideas more effectively and join on how think tank models can be used to attack anti- capitalism messages. he laughed at their schemes to improve society. he leaves melancholy, unsure of political leaders are capable of putting moral truths or scientific knowledge into practice. the four of us believe they can. we have devoted our careers to the theory and practice of how to link knowledge and power, especially on behalf of liberty and prosperity. let's talk about that. what you lead us off, ed? [applause] wants very much, i

everybody here to know that the four of us have one immediate, fundamental agreements. that was that we would join together and higher bid carson come work for all four of us. that guy is terrific. .hat a great set of insight i'll bet everybody here was involved in one way or another in a certain election that was held last november. the first thing i want to remind all of you is that there are basically two kinds of politics in the united states. were is what we all involved in last november, electoral politics. then there is what we now have, policy politics. they areens after

sworn in and how do we get to making our ideas have those right kind of consequences? all of us up here believe in a certain set of principles, free enterprise, limited government, traditional values. it brings us all together. how do we do it? we do it with what i call the three i's. first, we have the right ideas. ideas like freedom, ordered liberty, letting an individual rise as high as he or she can up the ladder of opportunity. second, we have got the individual. whether they are scholars at institutions or whether they are the ones on whose shoulders we all stand. and allon friedman's the others, going back to the

constitution, the founding fathers. the adam smith's. we on the conservative side and the libertarian side are so much better off today than we were .ack 25 or 30 years ago the institutions. they are strong, vibrant, energetic institutions on the rise today. we do come together. yes, there are ways we can work together. you heard me say the other night that one of our cpactives coming out of need to bring us together. let's go to war, but let's go to war with the common inner meaning -- enemy, the progressive notion that somehow

government is going to be the solution to where they think we should be going. institutionally, we all do it differently. our structures are different, our support base is different. i will tell you something else that the four of us agree on. unlike a lot of think tanks, we don't take any government grants. [applause] if you support any of us, it is because you agree about our ideas. it is not because in effect with a force of a gun, someone is taking money away from you and giving it to us. that is not the way we work in our version of a free society. [applause] yes, we are different. i take great pride in the fact that at heritage we have more than 600,000 members around the

country. i look back when i first came to heritage that there were not 600,000 people in the country who knew what a think thank was. -- tank was. i had an experience with the father of the grim snickering at the notion of a think tank. we have had puzzled looks over the years. sitting in the 17th row of an airplane to chicago in the -- steve forbes says, if you want to clear out seats, start talking about new monetary policy. same thing, talk to them about what life is like at a think tank. these ideas matter, and they are having a real impact. is toten to ben carson listen to a smart man, but to

listen to ben carson is not to necessarily half to care about how much he knows. we know, nasa we know how much he cares. that is a part of what we have to be able to bring over. it is not how much we know, it is that they know how much we care. as arthur talks about communicating, that will be one of the premises as we go ahead and try to move ahead. one of the big challenges we face -- i don't know if we have a chance to talk about it here, but i know from talking to each each of my colleagues on different occasions, it is something that challenges all of us. we measure inputs, how many people work for us, what is the size of our budget, all of that. then you go through a stage and you measure output, how many conferences that you have, how

the papers did you produce, how may times were your people on tv? what we have to get to, throughout the whole business of policy politics, is how do we measure outcomes? not just input, output, but outcomes. we have to get better at doing that. we have to get better at staying focused. that is why in past years, i have been so proud to work with my colleagues, ed crane, former head of cato. back when george w. bush, 2005, was talking about alternatives to social security, crane and i got on airplanes and we went to and out to chicago to the tribune and the sun-times and even to the washington post to talk to them about there are things we disagree about, but

this is a way to advance individual freedom and choice. we are together on this. so when we all had the opportunity to work together, i think it is up to us to look for those opportunities and try to find them and find as many of them as we can. my last thought is washington's congenital conservative optimism. we have got to learn how to communicate much more effectively than we have. my successor who is here thursday night for the keynote speech, has likened it to the fact that as conservatives, we've got to go out and sell vegetables and tell people what some of the challenges are that they are facing. in the meantime, the other guys on the progressive side are giving away free candy. if we're selling vegetables and they're giving away candy, guess who's going to win? we have to go back to first

principles and the constitution. with got to be up to talk fundamentally about what we agree on and what is best not just for us up here, but what is best for all the american people in terms of opening up that ladder of opportunity and making sure we are able to climb up. thanks everybody for being here. ideas matter. i look forward to our discussion. [applause] thank you. arthur, why don't you come up and give us your thoughts. thanks. it is an honor to be with you today. thought was about congenital conservative optimism. it sounds like a pretty bad disease. i want to start on the topic of optimism. i am married to an immigrant. many of you know immigrants are in -- extremely optimistic by nature.

to give you an idea of how optimistic my wife is, and optimistic conservative, congenital or otherwise, two months ago, we were having a pretty bad parent-teacher conference. some of you have had this experience. afterward, it was a graded issue. i can sell the story because my son is here today. we were in the car, coming home. .e were silent my wife finally says, let's look at it this way. at least we know he is not cheating. [laughter] after the election in november, november 7, my wife got up and said, i just don't know if our country is going to be all right. that was the first time i ever heard her say anything like that. i know some of you felt that way. what we need to do in this industry where we are trying to

gather ideas that we can run to patriots, like you, to turn this thing around. we need to ask what is going on. what is going on is encapsulated in one statistic. the only one you need to know is this, the question that came out from every report -- who do you think cares more about people like you? i know you have heard it and it picks you sick to your stomach. i will remind you. only one third of americans in every repeatable poll says they thought republicans cared about people like them. only 38% of americans said they thought republicans cared about the poor. before you dismiss this -- i know you want to dismiss it, and so do i. we have data to show that is not right. think for a second about what people have been going through over the past five years, people in the bottom half of income distribution. americans all over the country

who have been struggling. we hear day after day the and -- unemployment rate is seven percent. that is nonsense. the real unemployment rate is 15%. it is been a 50% for 40 months. -- 15%. real household incomes have been falling for the average american, especially in the bottom half every year for five years. it is exhausting. when you get worse off every single year. here is the worst of all, mobility is falling. it has been falling for a long time. it has fallen by one third since 1980, the ability to move from the bottom 20% to the middle class or above. some studies show that mobility is higher than it is in the united states. something is wrong and too many people think conservatives don't have an answer for them. what did they hear in the last election?

president obama said the rich people have your stuff, and i will get it back. it is nonsense. americans don't like it. what is the alternative? the idea that the bottom half ?re just a bunch of moocher?s here is the irony, the irony that drives us all crazy. if you want to help poor people, we have the ideas about her going to get that done. look around the world. since 1970, the world's worst by 80%.has declined 80%. the greatest anti-poverty achievement in the history of the world occurred since 1970. was it because of the wonderful united nations? was it the world bank or global socialism or u.s. foreign aid?

of course not. it was five things. globalization, free trade, property rights, rule of law and american entrepreneurship. you build that. [applause] you, and your values and your american free enterprise system have pulled more people out of poverty than any other idea or system in the history of the world. that is a profoundly moral thing to do. if we walk away from the free enterprise system, the world .ill follow and people will die that is the consequence of what we face today. it is not a question of how rich we are. it is a question of how people will live around the world. how do we turn this discussion around? how do we do it with ideas? how do we run those ideas to you as the patriots? there is research on this. from psychologists at new york

university. what they say is that americans have to universal moral values that they act upon. what are they? number one, fairness matters. i know it makes you sick to think of that word. the truth of the matter is, everybody demands fairness. number two, we all demand a system that helps the vulnerable. everybody believes it is right to help the marble. in other words, if you want to be seen as a moral, good person, talk about fairness and helping the vulnerable. here is the problem. we have been handing those ideas to the left for years. they are the fairness guys. they are helping the poor. who are we? we are the money guys. we say government is too big, regulation is too high, taxes are too high. we are fighting against things. they are fighting for people. they are all wrong.

they are hurting poor people. we are secretly helping poor people, yet we are doing exactly what it takes to lose the argument. do you want to win? start fighting for people instead of fighting against things. next time somebody says -- next time some race as we have reform entitlement, say that is right. not because we can't afford it but because when we bankrupt our country, it will be unfair to our kids and it will hurt the very people we are supposed to help because austerity always hurts the poor the most. lead with the vulnerable people. lead with fairness. what drives you crazy? run by a just they are unionized, terrible system and costs tons of money. that is true. it is because the bottom of this country are denied.

poor kids don't get a good education. it is an out reinsch -- outrage raid that is why it drives you crazy. -- outrage. [applause] be ready to do it for a long time. our civil rights activists should say i'm going to fight for you, whether you vote for me or not. threean it and do it for or four years, and then we will win. best of all, it is the right thing to do. we know it is depressing right now. that is what you are here for. you are the activists and on the frontline. we assist you. we run the idea to you. are made notders

for when times are good or when the country is on the right track, it is for when times are tough. everyone knows this is the beginning of a new era. we bring the dream that two americans. when we revolutionize our movement, we remember our grandparents who came on a boat poor to this country looking for a truly fair system which meant that it rewarded their hard work for the first time in their lives. fight for that dream and we will win. when we do, it will be a better country for us and for our kids and the people. for your hard work, for your fighting, god bless you and thank you. [applause] thank you, arthur. john allison and i are one of the newest in the group. john is new to washington, d.c., which must be a horrible shock to the system. john, what are you come and join us.

[applause] >> good morning, it is a pleasure to be here. . was going to talk about cato the vision of cato is to create a free and prosperous society based on libertarian principles. individual liberty, free markets, limited government and peace. a do that through having bunch of scholars that are able to advance complex arguments based on these principles. we are in the fight across the whole spectrum from long-term theications to what are implications of our drug policy and immigration policy? we also hit the whole political spectrum. we are libertarians. we advance our ideas from all

perspectives. we also, while we are a mass market organization, cato scholars are quoted in major media outlets, we are focused on people that impact other people. political leaders, media, business leaders, but also -- thelarly the university's, we are trying to impact the ideas in those universities. we do that with a very fundamental concepts about what the role of government is. isaac is important to begin with the right premises. the concept is the only purpose of government -- it is an important purpose. it is to protect individual rights. [applause] it is to keep me from taking what you produce and to keep you

from taking what i produce. that is all of what government is designed to do. we see that within the context createdrinciples that the united states. we think that the united states is a result of a long tradition and a long study of ideas that matter in the human well-being. this resulted in classical liberalism. we are the advocates of liberalism principles. we talk about ideas that created the american revolution, whatever mistakes they made technically, the ideas were fundamentally right. it is very wrong to treat these ideas as cliché. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are very fundamental about unconditional principles. what they imply to each individual, they have an unquestionable moral right to

their own life. each has a moral right to what they produce. if you produce a lot, you get a lot, including the right to give it away however reason you want to. , eachk most importantly of us has a moral right to pursue our personal happiness. we are not guaranteed success, but we have that right. if you think about a person pursuing their personal happiness, they have to have the right to be free to act consistent with their own beliefs, to act as an independent, free person, as having a fundamental right to their own life. that idea not only created a tremendously successful country -- it did create a successful country. they are more productive and innovative and creative. they also created a very benevolent country. when people have a right to

their own life, they are naturally nicer to other people. a communist and socialist society, everyone ends up hating each other because they are slaves to each other. we believe each individual has a moral right to pursue personal happiness. that is the american sense of life. whatever technical differences we may have, i think all of us are in the business of defending that american sense of life. that is the foundation of prosperity, and also the foundation of personal happiness. that is what all these think tanks do. thank you very much. [applause] we have a few minutes left before we are all gone off the stage. looking at this last election, it may be somewhat trite to say that we simply lose the argument are -- give us a quick sense of the frustration level that each individual has.

was it a matter of mechanics? ed, what are you taking issue with that -- taking issue with that. >> we conservatives have to learn, whether it is day to day communication through the media, new media, old media, have toic, you personalize things. this is a pitcher of my three grandkids. each one of these has a mortgage john's oldtgage from bank or if there is no house attached to mortgages. $200,000tgage are the in debt they are inheriting from my generation from the unfunded liabilities that we are incurring right now for social security, medicare, medicaid. you can't talk to people about billions and trillions.

you have to bring it up to real numbers. this, to me, is one of the big frustrations of last november. it remains a frustration today. take human hair, 90,000 human hairs side-by-side stretch roughly a football field. 90 million. excuse me. 90 billion go for 93 miles. go for that many thousands of miles. >> you have heard this one. >> you can't conceive of these kinds of numbers. when you talk in simple numbers , make it real for people and let's get back to that kind of reality and communicating our ideas and why our ideas are better and why we really care about people.

>> you really had to bring a pair, didn't you? [laughter] there are a lot of you frustrated. any time a major election is catastrophic, it is a tragedy. there is a lot of second guessing. it is pretty normal in a election to see after a financial crisis, people turn toward social democracy. it happened after the great depression. we will have a better game. how do we do it? that has to do with ideas and the strength of your activism. with the other side is counting on is that all of you stop being energetic and stop being in the fight. it is going to depend on the energy of those that are trying to build better ideas and messages and all of you. i am pretty confident and optimistic that 2016 is going to look a lot different than 2012. i believe in you and what you're

doing here. john? [applause] [applause] >> i would like to offer a different perspective. if you listen to the media, it is because of demographics. lots of interesting perspective. i think the democratic party has a much bigger problem. the problem is, they have made huge promises they cannot fulfill. they have offered something that is a big lie. one of our tasks is to help people through effective communication and the right kind of leaders understanding -- understand what is being offered won't work. one thing, we will have a moment -- it won't work. the question i think is very important is for us to have developed policy solutions that take us in the right direction when that moment occurs. the democratic party policy cannot work. institution has worked

with politicians decades ago. life was different, and that information is instantaneous now. the ability to market and manipulate social media, i think, makes it difficult for politicians to behave in the right way. the question is, what can we in the modern version of heritage and kato due to participate in that new information, media frenzy that we have and how can we adapt? arthur? >> our job is getting the message to politicians, but also business leaders and media leaders and community leaders. in other words, our job is getting the ideas to you, so you can use them. we can't be on the front lines doing all the types of things that you can. our job is making sure -- a long time ago when our institutions were founded, these two beautiful things with

a thousand flowers bloom, people found them. it is a crowded world now. it is overwhelming everything. the truth of the matter is, for us to be successful, we have to be more creative at getting the right message to the right people. the key to success is not having our idea out of us but as pushing the right ideas to the right people. you need to go to the policymakers proactively. this is how we're building our practice, our media practice, our outreach practice, our campus progress. everything we are doing with aei is delivering things to be right people who need them and can use them. that is the way of the future. >> john? >> one of the most important things you can do is to help people understand that just because something sounds good, it does not necessarily actually create good consequences. if you look at people that we disagree with on the left, a lot of them do have good

intentions. not all of them. if they don't understand their policies produce outcomes they really don't want in the long term -- one of our jobs is to help people understand the good intentions do not always produce good results. that can be true of us. the immigration policies produce the outcomes we want? those are questions we need to ask objectively. that is how you change opinions. it is not necessarily attack their intentions. say if you want to that, what you're proposing does not produce what you want. >> let me follow-up on one of the points points you made we've talked about the information -- that we all face from the media. the first thing that the four of us will absolutely insist on has got to be the integrity of our research. our research has to be up front. it has to be solid at it has to be unchallengeable. you know, if we make a mistake

that the other side is going to find it right away. as soon as they find it, our guys cannot comment on it. that is number one. that is important for all of you. when you are deluged with new goia outlets, you need to without fear or favor. we are doing a lot of exciting new things. we have heritage, spanish language reaching out to 40 million americans whose native language is spanish. that is what they are speaking at home. we believe that english should be the language of the united states. but, by gosh, if 40 million people are seeking special home, we want to reach them. we want them to be able to climb up the opportunity ladder. we want to be able to work with them and terms of local schools. that is one of the other big things. when you see someone -- something that works tell the story. don't put it in bigger

statistics. tell the story about the kid and fifth or sixth grade in raleigh, north anna, who we saw woodward down there 10 days ago. -- when we were down there 10 days ago. inner-city kids who were behind in terms of visibility. that is the real story. it is not statistics about how many thousands are not making it. find the one that really matters. >> if we can emphasize the point about talking to people, not things. stories matter and they have power. stories, we can help soften people. not government taking care of them, but others in the community come a that is the way we would like to go. we are running out of time. ed, i want to take advantage of having you here. .rthur, that leaves you